As 3rd 737 fuselage is retrieved, Boeing ponders production impact

Originally published July 9, 2014 at 7:14 am

Updated July 9, 2014 at 9:43 pm

A crew pulls a Boeing 737 fuselage up a bank of the Clark Fork River near Alberton, Mont., on Tuesday. A train derailment last week spilled six fuselages headed for Renton, including two that wound up in the river.

Boeing is looking to supplier Spirit AeroSystems to step up production to help replace the 737 fuselages damaged in last Thursday’s train wreck in Montana, Pat Shanahan, Boeing’s senior vice president in charge of all commercial-airplane programs, said Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of commonality between (airline) customers, but not to the degree you can just substitute one fuselage for another,” Shanahan said in an interview. “Our intent is to make it up, but it’s not something you can just pull ahead in a matter of weeks or days.

“We’re working right now with Spirit to understand what surge capacity they have,” Shanahan added. “It’s not like they have a lot of extra capacity.”

He said Boeing will also talk to its airline customers to see what accommodations might be acceptable.